Fascism without Borders

Conference from June 19 to 21 at Freie Universität to Address Transnational Connections of Fascist Movements and Regimes in Europe between 1918 and 1945

№ 183/2014 from May 23, 2014

A conference from June 19 to 21 at Freie Universität will address the complexity and variety of fascism in Europe during the first half of the twentieth century. The conference will bring together experts to explore the cross-border relationships and linkages between smaller fascist movements as well as the supranational influence of German Nazism and Italian Fascism. Considering these relations opens a new perspective on European fascism, in which it is seen as a whole, diverse, closely interlinked movement. The aim of the conference is to reconstruct general processes of reception and interaction in Europe and to draw conclusions for the present. The presentations will be given in English. The conference is open to the public, and there is no charge.

"Notwithstanding their ultranationalist natures, fascists understood themselves as members of a transnational political movement," explains Arnd Bauerkämper, a professor at Freie Universität Berlin's Department of History and Cultural Studies. Although a “Fascist International” did not emerge in the inter-war period, fascist activists, groups, and regimes shared common goals and sentiments, which led them to draw on each other for support and inspiration. Italian fascism in the early 1920s and the Nazi seizure of power in 1933 inspired smaller fascist movements in different countries of Europe to seize power in their countries and to establish fascist dictatorships.